The MetroHealth Foundation celebrated a new $1.5 million investment from the KeyBank Foundation on April 22, 2026, extending support for the health system’s Opportunity Centers in Cleveland’s Buckeye and Clark-Fulton neighborhoods. The announcement came during the Pathways to Opportunity Celebration at MetroHealth’s Buckeye Health Center.
The three-year investment builds on KeyBank Foundation’s initial $1.5 million commitment in 2021 and brings KeyBank’s lifetime giving to MetroHealth to $3.4 million over 23 years of partnership. MetroHealth said the money will support its “Expanding Opportunity” strategy by strengthening staffing, including financial coaches and community health workers, while also expanding workforce development and credentialing programs with Cuyahoga Community College, improving technology and digital access, and growing community partnerships and programming.
MetroHealth’s Opportunity Centers operate through the Institute for H.O.P.E.™ and are designed to connect patients, employees and neighborhood residents to financial coaching, workforce training, health navigation and community partners. Since the centers launched, MetroHealth says it has screened nearly 160,000 people for social needs, connected thousands of them to essential resources, hosted more than 130 programs and served over 1,000 residents. The centers have also helped hundreds of people improve financial stability through debt reduction, savings growth and credit improvement.
Christine Alexander-Rager said the investment reflects a shared belief that health is shaped by opportunity, stability and access, not just care delivered in a clinic. Eric Fiala said Cleveland’s strength rests on the well-being and stability of its neighbors and neighborhoods, and that the funding reflects KeyBank’s belief that strong communities are built by expanding access to opportunity where people live and work.
The new money does more than reinforce a successful program. It shows that the work is no longer experimental. MetroHealth has turned the Opportunity Centers into a measurable neighborhood service, and KeyBank is now backing that model for another three years as the system pushes to widen its reach in two of Cleveland’s most closely watched communities.
